jonnybaker

lent begins

i love the season of lent - it's a time to prepare for easter, and a time to think about what it means to follow christ. 

if you are looking for ideas of something to do to help you in that process here's a few i have noticed 

cms has a resource called 40 days of yes - it's free, short and simple and will help you reflect on mission and discipleship. you can download as a pdf or follow each day.

brian draper is running his annual reflections - he is a gifted writer in the area of spirituality

elizabeth sercombe (who i know little about) is doing an online adventure thing - others have enthused to me about her - see more here - you'll have to e-mail her for info

proost has a bundle of resources to use either individually or for a church - search under lent or look at the latest newsletter. they include of course the amazing si smith video 40 that i watch every lent and still love!

christine sine begins a series return to our senses in lent which starts tomorrow

mark pierson always sends me a resource printed for lent (and does the same for advent) through the post from new zealand which is extraordinary! you can see and sign up to receive his daily reflections here 

at grace we are having weekly meals and conversations with visitors from other communities round london coming and sharing their stories and learning.

if you know of other things or ideas post a comment below. don't be overwhelmed by the different things. by way of advice pick one practice that you might engage in to help you reflect through the season.

riffing on john of the cross

desire from jonny baker on Vimeo.

grace last night was inspired by john of the cross and invloved an exploration of longing, the veil of the senses, the veil of the spirit and union with god. it felt a bit back to the old school as we draped muslin screens, got slide projectors out and went slightly ott! i have added the outline of it and linked to photos, prayers, stations, movies and so on in the grace web site archive here.

if you were interested in the themes the book that inspired me is called the shattered lantern and this little grove booklet is also a good intro.

i am adding the whole thing a a worship trick...

art in holy week day 1: the lent cross delarosa

[this is part of a series of blog posts on art in holy week - see also

• art in holy week day two: raised in leeds
• art in holy week day three: the create project
• art in holy week day four: the easter story engedi arts
• art in holy week day five: soul of sheffield 
• art in holy week day six: stations of the king's cross
• art in holy week day seven: noesis
• art in holy week day eight: the resurrection ]

there is so much creativity around at the moment taking art engaging in sme way with the christian story and performing it or letting it loose in public space. i thought i would try and mention one piece/exhibit each day through holy week and see how it goes...

day 1: the lent cross delarosa

so first up is the lent cross put in the middle of the north lanes in brighton by beyond . this is a transparent perpsex cross with small holes through which people can post thoughts on what they could and couldn't live without. each week there is a gathering to share bread and wine. their blog tells how it has been unscrewed, kicked around and smashed but is being put back together. so it's now a cross that rather than being clean and perfect now bears the scars of its mistreatment, a sign of the suffering god on the via delarosa.

if you know of creative art installations and exhibitions please leave a comment...

lent through the lanes

beyond in brighton have created lent through the lanes - if you are anywhere near brighton go and experience it. collect a headset and the meditations are automatically triggered at the various stations on the journey.

cave and calvary

we put a couple of new movies up on proost this month - cave and calavary. cave is a movie exploring the notion of cave as a place to retreat to to be alone with god. It was inspired by ian adams book cave refectory road. the other is called calvary and much more geared for the other end of lent and good friday. it's a photographic piece exploring stations of the cross.

wilderness exhibition in sheffield

the other weekend when i was in sheffield for resource i met ric who is an artist and methodist minister. he is curating this exhibition wilderness, si smith is taking part and no doubt lots of others. i loved this piece ric is doing children of clay sending out 40 clay figures to be located in and around sheffield for 40 days to see what happens as they interact with the world. his blog has several photos of the children so far...

a few 40s...

i think it's a good idea to follow something, one thing to help you reflect during lent. the danger is that we all feel the need to follow too many things and lent just gets busy! so don't feel obliged to follow any of these but they may be of interest...

ben edson is posting 40 days worth of reflections 40 words long with and image and video from last year's lent project at sanctus1. this is the first day then scroll up through posts

cheryl lawrie is counting down and posting 40,39,38 etc words of lent each day. her writing is a delight as i hope you all realise by now. again here's the first day - scroll up through...

then lastly but by no means least it was wonderful to bump into gerard and chrissie kelly at cms yesterday who were in for a few meetings from bethanie in france where they have been developing a mission base. gerard's writing has always been brilliant... they are running 40 days of prayershots for europe. you can follow along in twitter...

lent begins - morning and evening prayer and ash wednesday prayer

it was pancakes last night and tonight grace gathers for an ash wednesday service...

i have grown to like the season of lent. it's a time for reflecting on faith and following christ. several members of grace are reading along with maggi dawn's lent book giving it up which i started today. it contains a devotional reflection type thing each day. and if you read the last post you'll see that cms members are using 40 days of yes which i'll also be using (it's going to be long breakfasts i can see).

if you are after resources/ideas for lent i have categorised posts relating to lent over the years so follow the link through to this section

christine sine seemingly gets better and better as a liturgist and seems to particularly love lent and advent. she has posted a couple of lovely pieces. one is a morning and evening prayer that their community are using through lent. this is simple and beautiful. and the second is an ash wednesday prayer that is challenging to pray.

i am making these worship trick 84 series 3

i-church have an online lent program that will be worth visiting each week...

worship trick 82 - lent beach tweets

ben norton seems to be on a roll. for lent the bridlington crew are running a project called beach tweets. this is what they say about it

The idea is to allow people to find some time during the 40 days of Lent to reflect on their own journey. During this time a group of people will be taking it in turns to write a reflection in the sand on the south shore beach in Bridlington. These words have been chosen because they have impacted the life of the person sharing them. The reflections will appear in different places and at different times, each day the words will be washed away by the tide reflecting the ebb and flow of our own journeys.

if can't make the beach, follow on twitter

grace lent 2010

details of what we are up to in grace for lent 2010 are here...

this includes reading and reflecting on maggi dawn's book giving it up which i am looking forward to.

creation stations

back in 2005 (i think) we (proost) worked with group publishing to create a resource that gave people the tools to set up an interactive installation/worship experience based on the story of creation with a station for each day. we ran the installation at grace and at greenbelt - some photos are here. it was a very neat condensed kind of experience narrated by a series of meditations with accompanying ambient soundscape listened to on headphones and was pretty all age friendly. it was published with group under the title worshipping the creator. anyway it's run its course with group and the rights have returned to us at proost. our name for it was always creation stations so we have made it our latest upload on proost as a download resource under that title. it's a bit large with all the bits and pieces so we have separated it out into two parts: creation stations - the leader's guide, poster files, childrens guide and other bits and pieces; and creation stations meditations which is the audio soundtrack. the good news is that because it's now a download it's much cheaper.

lent is actually a season we have often run installation type experiences, often in holy week. i'll say a bit more over the next week or two about other resources and ideas for lent.. if you already subscribe to proost you can access this in the downloads area. if not you know if makes sense...

breathing prayer - worship trick 59

thanks to anyone who showed up last night for the worship at LST. if you are interested in any of the prayers and liturgy etc most of it is here - wounded in all the right places...

mike led an opening prayer exercise to help us focus and quiet down. he used a breathing prayer that i really liked so asked where he found it or whther he had written it. it turns out he came across it following some of the lent link i have posted! it's a breathing prayer written by christine sine whose really becoming a fantastic leader in spirituality and creativity and is collating a ton of resources through her blogging, tweeting and so on. anyway mainly because i'll want to remember where this prayer was at some point in the future i am making this a worship trick in series 3 - number 58.

it goes like this...

Breathe in the breath of God

Breathe out your cares and concerns

Breathe in the love of God

Breathe out your doubts and despairs

Breathe in the life of God

Breathe out your fears and frustrations

We sit quietly before the One who gives life and love to all creation,

We sit in awe of the One who formed us in our mother’s wombs

We sit at peace surrounded by the One who fills every fibre of our being

Breathe in the breath of God

Breathe out your tensions and turmoil

Breathe in the love of God

Breathe out your haste and hurry

Breathe in the life of God

Breathe out your work and worry

We sit quietly before the One who gives life and love to all creation,

We sit in awe of the One who formed us in our mother’s wombs

We sit at peace surrounded by the One who fills every fibre of our being

journey into seeing - lent blog post for radio 4

sense making faith is a journey through lent observing the senses. each week takes a different sense. sunday worship on radio 4 is on the theme, then there are a bundle of resources you can download each week. and there is a blog with someone reflecting on the theme each week. i was invited to be part of it and have blogged on this week's theme:

journey into seeing

lent links 2

beyond are on a roll - follwing the advent beach huts they have an easter journey following the stations of the cross but in public space - you can download a map here. i'll probably blog again about stations of the cross nearer easter but if you're anywhere near brighton there are three days with guided walks round the stations including good friday.

good news also from brighton is that garden are getting started again this sunday with the quiet call of what is. unlike vaux i think this is more than just a rumour... brighton seems to be a creative nerve centre for alt worship - come on london get your act together!!!

oxford also seems to be creating a bit of a scene these days. maybe it's always been there but i am noticing it now i work there a couple of days a week. anyway i am very excited about stillpoint a new venture between matt rees and ian adams of home and maybe. this is the blurb...

StillPoint exists to nurture and encourage the practice of Christian spirituality in a variety of ways but particularly focussing on the practice of Christianity as an eastern religion and exploring the contemplative and mystical streams of the Christian tradition.

Its aim is to serve both spiritually searching people who would not previously have considered the Christian way as a path to deepen their spiritual search, as well as people who would already identify themselves as Christians but are looking for opportunities to learn practices that will deepen their interior journey.

there is a launch this weds night with jamie catto of 1giantleap - quite a coup! i am gutted that i can't go as we will be leading a worship evening at LST (not gutted about that but about missing the stillpoint launch!). they are also doing a stations of the cross exhibition in a gallery in oxford - i am one of the contributing artists but more about that nearer the time.

then in manchester there is 40 days of public solitude, another brilliant idea...

and sanctuary in bath are running a lent blog with a post a week. i loved this piece from dave wiles . the poem he writes is in a movie with some of his photos on proost

lent links

give up give out
lenten guide and synchroblog
engage in the beattitudes with cityside
an incomplete idea for lent
love to pieces

lent

lent is underway. i always like this season. there is always loads of great stuff out there in the blogosphere which i hope to unearth and link to over the next few weeks. an easy starting point is to follow my category lent if you want to see previous years' content.

this year grace are not running a lent blog. but if you want something to dip into or follow along the previous three years are here -

2006 | 2007 | 2008.
(because of the way blogs work they start at the end)

i thought i was being organised ordering maggi's book ahead of time for lent but have realised that it is clearly for next year's lent - doh! so i guess i am prepared for next year :-) however true to form mark pierson has produce a wonderful little booklet through lent with a reflection for each day so i will be following along with that. that arrived in the post as a gift so that seemed perfect (thanks mark) - if it's online somewhere let me know!

we have three extra grace evenings through lent exploring the theme of gift further - a film night watching sigur ros film heima and discussing giving gifts in the community, a storytelling night in the new inn and a discussion around giving . the dates are march 5, 19, april 2. leave a comment if you want more info...

and leave a comment if you have come across some great lent stuff online...

lent book

i have ordered maggi's book giving it up for lent...

lent resources on proost

it's two weeks to ash wednesday and the beginning of lent. i always love the season of lent - it somehow provides a good focus for faith in the run up to and preparation from easter. unlike previous years grace are not running a lent blog. we decided to take a break from that. but I'm sure there will be plenty of activity to link to in the coming weeks...

proost's february content is now uploaded. there are a two ambient instrumental pieces from jon birch dust and water, a movie winter from dave wiles which reflects in photography and poetry on death and new life. dave is new on proost. and then a quirky fun movie from andi mac called vampire love which looks at the transforming nature of love with an electro pop soundtrack by ben mcavoy, also new on proost. if you have a valentine's day event this would be perfect!

i was having a quick look through proost resources for lent. 40 is the most popular, the amazing movie by si smith tracing jesus' journey into the wilderness in 40 illustrations. it is also available in a book with accompanying reflection. other movies that might work for lent - beattitudes, space and time, where are you, winter, vampire love, cloud and incense smoke.

on books, tune in chill out, alternative worship and heart soul mind and strength are full of creative prayer ideas. the pocket liturgy series have plenty of lent pieces: ash weds labyrinth in hold this space, 5 blessings for lent in a book of blessings, slow service in grace, lent reflection in sanctus1...

jenny baker's contemplative prayer EP, earthenware's deserts 1-5 with accompanying meditation (see that page to download words), molten meditation and labyrinth (try noise with the vj loop spectrograph) are all in the audio section.

a shift in perspective: elijah in the desert

at grace this saturday we continue our lenten desert journies with a shift of perspective and elijah in the desert

it will be an interactive exploration of the story. we take it in turns to curate/pull it together - this month it's my turn with adam and kathy and i'm looking forward to it...

8pm st marys ealing | directions on the web site | café and guest DJ

lent blog still rolling

the grace lent blog is still rolling along